


Perfectly Whole

by lizandletdie



Series: From Shattered Places [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, toxic levels of fluf, victorian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 03:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9364100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizandletdie/pseuds/lizandletdie
Summary: Belle has a surprise for her husband when he returns from a trip to London. Set about nine years after From Shattered Places, unabashedly fluffy fluff. Gratuitous scene of Gold and his small daughters.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ishtarelisheba said:  
> Could we have a little update on how FSP!Belle, Gold, and their kids are doing?

Belle was sure she was going to explode from excitement. Her husband was due back from London today and while the girls were wonderful company when he was gone, she was aching for his company again. Some of it was because while she loved her children, an eight year old and a five year old were not wonderful conversationalists, but she had an ulterior motive as well – one she’d been waiting to get confirmation of when he left. She was pregnant again. Both of them had assumed Molly would be the last when she didn’t fall pregnant again, although, granted, they had taken some steps to prevent further conception had had perhaps gotten a _bit_ careless with them in recent months. She’d missed her last few cycles, and when she’d started becoming ill again in the mornings she knew precisely what it was.

Her maternity dresses had been dug out of the attic storage even though she knew she didn’t really _need_ them yet. She felt better having them at hand and being in a maternity corset no matter that she wasn’t quite showing yet.

Rebecca was practicing piano in the drawing room and Belle was curled up with Molly practicing her letters when Rhys walked in still wearing his travelling clothes. He didn’t say anything, but Rebecca stopped playing on an off-chord and when Belle looked up she saw her husband standing in the doorway looking at the three of them like he was admiring a painting.

“Papa!” Rebecca exclaimed, sliding off her bench and rushing into her father’s arms. Molly followed suit as she was wont to do whenever her sister did anything.

“Hello, darlings,” he said, kissing the top of each girl’s head in turn. “Were you good for your mother?”

Both of the children were babbling unintelligibly as they tried to tell him everything they’d done during his absence, and then it was Belle’s turn to watch happily as he listened as attentively as he possibly could to the overlapping stories, but it warmed her heart to see him with the girls. At last, he joined her on the settee with Molly on his lap and Rebecca next to him while they chattered.

“It sounds like you two had a very good time,” he said at last. “Do you want to hear about London?”

Both girls nodded enthusiastically as he told them all about their brother’s new house and how excited Neal and Emma both were to see the girls at Christmas. They absolutely adored Neal and his new bride since they had both served as flower girls in the wedding, and that had been just about as exciting an event as either one could possibly imagine. At long last, Nanny came to fetch the girls for tea but Rhys held them back for a moment.

“Are you ready for your surprises?” he asked and both nodded again. He smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling out two little porcelain animals, handing a zebra to Rebecca and a hippopotamus to Molly. “For your Noah’s Ark,” he said. The Noah’s Ark was an absolutely ridiculous affair, almost as large as Molly and filled with a veritable menagerie of animals Rhys had been collecting for them since Rebecca was old enough to understand the concept of gifts and both girls absolutely adored it.

“Thank you, Papa!” Rebecca said cheerfully, kissing her father on the cheek.

“Yeah, thank you,” Molly said, using her father’s knee to hoist herself up onto tiptoes to kiss his other cheek.

“You’re very welcome,” he said. “Now, go get cleaned up with Nanny.”

The two followed their nanny from the room, leaving Belle alone at last with her husband. She didn’t say anything at first, just slid down the settee to rest her head on his shoulder and let him put his arm around her shoulders. It was always nice when he came home from a trip and they could have this first moment of quiet together. She would live in these moments if she could.

“And how is my wife?” he said softly, pulling her tighter. “It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve been back.”

“I’m very well,” she replied. It had only been a few weeks since he’d left, any longer and she would have taken the girls and joined him, but it did feel like forever sometimes.

“Did you miss me terribly?”

“Always,” she said, looking up and pressing a kiss to his lips. “I miss you every single day that you’re not here.”

“I missed you, too. I missed the girls – I missed all of this, really.”

“Maybe it’s time for you to properly retire?”

“Perhaps. I just worry about Neal. He had some news, by the way.”

“Really?”

“It’s a secret for a little while longer, but Emma’s expecting. She has another four or five months, I believe…” he stopped when he realized that Belle was shaking with laughter. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, Rhys, I don’t know how to say this,” she said between her giggles, putting a hand on her lower belly. “But you’re going to be a grandfather and then a father again a few months later.”

She saw confusion cross his face for a split second before his eyebrows shot straight up and he looked at her in awe and joy.

“Are you sure?” he said breathlessly, putting his hand over hers on her torso. “I mean, _really_ sure?”

“I am,” she replied. “It feels just like with Rebecca and Molly. I’d say another five or six months.”

He didn’t reply, instead he kissed her again, putting his free hand behind the back of her neck to draw her in closer. She had known he’d be over the moon, and she’d been right. Every second of this day felt so beautiful and so very right that she could hardly stand it. If anyone had told her even ten years ago she’d be here feeling this way she never could have believed it, but he’d been her salvation and now they were in such a beautiful state of bliss. Everything was just so _perfect_.


End file.
